3. Searching for Data - Tips
• Search when you know what you want:
– A survey name
– A series name
– An acronym
– An investigator or agency name
• Browse when you sort of know what you want
– Browse by topic, geography, investigator, or series
• Filter results by subject, geography, time period, and
author
4. Worth Noting: Other Ways to
Find ICPSR Data
External searches
• ISI Web of Science
– Partnership
between ICPSR &
Thompson Reuters
• Data.gov
– Links back to ICPSR
data/documentation
for some studies
6. Documentation Files
• Study Description
– scope of study, methodology, access and
availability, bibliographic citation
• Codebook
– provides information on the structure,
contents, and layout of the data file
– usually includes: variable name, variable
column location, variable label, missing
data code, code value, and value label
• Survey instrument
8. Analyze Data Online
• Perform data analysis online without
downloading files
• Uses Survey Documentation Analysis (SDA)
• Not available for all studies
12. Bibliography of Data-Related Literature
• Publications based on data held at ICPSR
– Find an article in our bibliography
– We display the dataset(s) related to it
• Growing the Data Bibliography
– ICPSR staff continuously searching for data citations
– Encouraging the use of data citations (included in all
downloads & on the documentation page!)
– Please cite the data when you publish and we will
find/add you!
• Ability to see the article citation and click through
for full-text
• Many use the Data Bibliography as a search tool!
13. Specialty Archives/Thematic Collections
• Data grouped by substantive topic
• Many archives (thematic collections), including:
– Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA)*
– National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD)*
– National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA)*
– Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR)*
– Member Archive (ICPSR collection)
– Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD)
– Newest archives:
• National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NADHAP)*
• NCAA
*These archives are federally funded
14. Questions? Help?
Summer Durrant
ICPSR Official Representative
IUPUI University Library
durrant@iupui.edu
(317) 274-8061
Notas del editor
The great thing about our data archive is that there is a lot of data.The biggest challenge for data users is: there is a LOT of data (to weed through & find what you need).
Some tips on what to enter in the Search Box and/or how to use the browse features based on your level of knowledge about what data you want to analyze.Our search technology now offers faceted search – search categories or filters on the right side of your screen to help you narrow your search.When you know what you want, enter terms directly in the search box.When you sort of know, explore ICPSR’s browsing tools – themes, data types, variables, subjects, etc.No idea what you want? Explore the bibliography. Do some reading and then “back into” a dataset.
Click on “view details” or “View study description” for the full description & citation“Browse documentation files” contains pdf copies of the codebook and questionnaire (if available)“List all variables in this study” lists and defines the variables“View related literature” is the bibliography of articles/reports based on this dataset“Download” enables you to download the study files – it’s recommended that you select the files you need; however, you and download all files by using the link or the “Quick Download” button – the size of the uncompressed files is noted.“Analyze online” appears if the study has online analysis (SDA) capability
Click on “view details” or “View study description” for the full description & citation“Browse documentation files” contains pdf copies of the codebook and questionnaire (if available)“List all variables in this study” lists and defines the variables“View related literature” is the bibliography of articles/reports based on this dataset“Download” enables you to download the study files – it’s recommended that you select the files you need; however, you and download all files by using the link or the “Quick Download” button – the size of the uncompressed files is noted.“Analyze online” appears if the study has online analysis (SDA) capability
Click on “view details” or “View study description” for the full description & citation“Browse documentation files” contains pdf copies of the codebook and questionnaire (if available)“List all variables in this study” lists and defines the variables“View related literature” is the bibliography of articles/reports based on this dataset“Download” enables you to download the study files – it’s recommended that you select the files you need; however, you and download all files by using the link or the “Quick Download” button – the size of the uncompressed files is noted.“Analyze online” appears if the study has online analysis (SDA) capability
Click on “view details” or “View study description” for the full description & citation“Browse documentation files” contains pdf copies of the codebook and questionnaire (if available)“List all variables in this study” lists and defines the variables“View related literature” is the bibliography of articles/reports based on this dataset“Download” enables you to download the study files – it’s recommended that you select the files you need; however, you and download all files by using the link or the “Quick Download” button – the size of the uncompressed files is noted.“Analyze online” appears if the study has online analysis (SDA) capability
ICPSR is working with Berkeley to render SDA in a format that will allow us to customize the appearance of the interface and results.
Gender variable by ever smoked marijana variable
For institutions that subscribe to OCLC Wildcat – full text is available without leaving the ICPSR Website.Note: July 2009 – Jan 2010: over 275,000 biblio searches conducted!Excellent way to search for students just starting out and/or when you don’t know what you are looking for!As the saying goes, to get familiar with the topic, “Read, read, and read some more!”
When you sort of know what you want – browse the archives/thematic collections and search within them.Note: When you search within an archive, the search limits you to only data within that archive. When you search on the main site of ICPSR, the search returns results from the members-only collection and all archives/collections that ICPSR hosts. Searching from the ICPSR site returns much broader results – this can be a good or bad thing!
